The Examinations

Older people who reflect on the happiness of youth often forget all about examinations, just as we tend to push all unpleasant things out of mind. All young people who aspire to reach any worthwhile position in life are committed to the examination system from the age of 9 or 10, until the early 20s, if the university training or technical college is included. Examinations are a series of hurdles to be jumped until the weary student finally reaches the winning post — job.  At any rate, most people see them this way. Nobody likes them, but nobody can suggest a reasonable substitute for them.

There are two kinds of examinations; the private ones held in school or college and the public ones such as school entrance, School Certificate, Higher School Certificate and the University examinations such as B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) B.S.c. (Bachelor of Science), B. Lit (Bachelor of Literature, L.L.B ( Bachelor of laws ), etc. their objectives may vary. The private ones are intended to show whether or not a student has worked well during a term and the result may involve little more than pleasure (or displeasure!) on the part of parent or teacher. The public ones are designed as stepping stones to more advanced fields of education until the degree level is reached, and these are very important in determining the kind of job a student can get in the competitive world or in indicating what kind of further education suits his or her particular talents.

Banks, business houses, commerce, and local government demand a reasonable number of good ‘O’ levels and prefer some ‘A’s, while the professions, the law, medicine, teaching, etc require considerably higher qualifications even than these. To the student, it seems an endless vista of study — an intellectual ‘rat-race’ in these competitive modern times. Yet, there must be some way of indicating that one student has reached a required level when another has failed — even the student will admit this (especially after he has passed). And the authorities have never been in any doubt — anywhere. The fact that public examinations, both oral and written, were held as long ago as in Greek and Roman times shows this — as does the fact that examinations today are held in every civilized country in the world. If we accept the need for a way of differentiating students, the question which follows is, “are examinations the best way ?” Here, there are two schools of thought. In Britain, the most debated examination is the “11 +”. If a child fails at this age, he or she is debarred from the grammar school or ‘stream’, and in effect, from academic life.

In a few cases, bright failures are given a second chance at 13, and a few moves into higher schools — but not many. Some local authorities have now dropped the examination altogether at this stage and award places on termly work and primary teachers’ recommendations. But here again, some have to fail, and however impartial the decision may be, there is always some suspicion of favoritism or unfairness.

The question arising, then, ‘is an examination a fair test of ability ?’ The answer, generally is, ‘yes, it is.’ There are, of course, children and young people whose minds ‘go blank’ in the examination room and those who suffer from nerves or whose technique is bad, and then they fail to do themselves justice. But too often this talk of ‘exam. nerves’ s a cloak for laziness or ignorance! By the middle teens, a child ought to make a fair showing, at more tender ages the candidate is given every chance including an intelligence test beforehand sufficiently elaborate to enable the school to predict results with some confidence.

The last question — ‘Are examinations fair in themselves ?’ – may most certainly be answered ‘yes. The examiner is never out to catch the student; indeed enormous efforts are made to offer a wide selection of fair questions covering the whole range of work the student may be expected to have done. Again, the student who says ‘I had a bad paper’ really means ‘I only covered part of the work and was unlucky!’

Given hard and intelligent work, any normal student may expect to pass his examination. There are, of course, helpful points such as neatness good spelling, paragraphing, planning the paper at the beginning, and so on. These will all gain marks. But in general, providing the work is there, so will be the results.

Examinations need never be feared. They can even be enjoyed; if only in retrospect!